Alexander Rosales is running for Anchorage School Board’s Seat A against incumbent Margo Bellamy. We asked each candidate the same five questions and gave them 90 seconds to answer each one. Read the transcript of Rosales' answers below and click the play button above to listen to where he stands. Find the rest of the Anchorage municipal election candidates’ Q&A’s here.
1. Why should people vote for you?
Alright, so where we're sitting right now, in the state, we're 49th in results, nearly last, and there's a lot of change that needs to happen. So I feel like I am a much better candidate to make that happen. So sitting on the school board, there's a lot of different things that go into each issue, and I've been keeping track of all of them for well over the past year and seeing how things are going. I do have two daughters within the school district, so I am very much invested. I volunteer with the schools and give feedback to my principals at both schools. So the vote for me is making sure that a parent's voice is on the, on the school board and not some other outside interest.
2. What is the single biggest issue facing the Anchorage School District and how would you address it as a school board member?
The single biggest issue is student safety. So the one line that the school district does say consistently is "school safety is our top priority," but they don't show those actions afterwards. So what I would want to do is make sure that parents are more involved in the school district, especially dads. So one program that I was involved with was All Pro Dads, and we would meet with the kids before school once a month, have breakfast, answer tough questions, be open, communication-wise with the kids, but then just being there at the school, walking around, you know, telling kids to spit out their gum, pull up their pants, you know, be respectful members of society. So I think it's parents being directly involved. The communication from the district to the parents needs to be a lot better as well. So when incidents do happen, we should know about it. The community should know about it as well. So yesterday, I heard about there was a big fight over at East High School, and not too much is being said out on the airwaves about it, you know, because the district wants to, you know, control the situation, control the narrative. Make sure everybody's fine. No kids are being hurt outside of that. And then maybe they'll do a statement. But in this timeframe, parents could be involved talking with other parents, handling it on their end as well. So it's not just up to the school district. It needs to be parents as well.
3. Is the level of state funding for public schools adequate? Why or why not?
So it depends on which school you're actually looking at. So every single school is different and require a different level of funding. So right now, the current budget for ASD is $900 million with a $100 million deficit that they currently just voted on last week or this week. So that funding is absolutely not adequate if we cannot fund all of our teachers and our school sports. School sports is one of the most important things to our kids’ mental health. We're seeing a huge rise in teen depression, suicide and all that stuff, and that is at a higher level than even veterans with PTSD. So we do need to fund a little bit better for schools, especially the ones out in our rural communities, but we don't have that problem here in Anchorage. What we do have is a spending problem here in Anchorage that is then slighting the rest of the schools around the state. So there is a balance that needs to be figured out. So I would say no to the funding is not good at the, the state level at all.
4. The district proposed and made massive budget cuts. As a board member, what type of cuts would you be in favor of? Please be specific.
Let’s see here. The cuts that I would be most in favor of are the spending that is most further away from the classroom. So our spending should be targeted directly at the student first, and then work outwards from there. So student, teacher, parent, you know, school, community. And every single school should know what they need funding-wise. And if they're not being forthcoming with that information, if they're trying to just spend so they don't lose the money, then that's what I would be looking at directly. So anybody who doesn't have any direct connection to a student in a classroom would be most at risk for being cut. Yeah, the current cuts of what they're, what they're looking at, is not gonna, not gonna fly at all, like I mentioned with the sports that has to stay. And let's see, I don't know, I don't know what else. I would have to look at the budget and then see how things go with every single school. But it would be a case-by-case basis. It's not just one big, sweeping thing.
5. What initiatives would you support to improve student outcomes?
I mentioned before with the All Pro Dads program, that's just one idea to get parents involved and in every single school. I think the PTAs, PTOs are crucial in every school. If they are not being supported properly, then that's what we need to look at. Reading is extremely important with the Alaska Reads Act that was passed in 2022 and then funding was finally passed in June of 2024. Reading is extremely important with our kids, almost all of them are grade behind in reading. That is one thing that I feel like we can improve on overnight. One main thing in that whole act or bill was that if a kid is not reading up to grade level by fourth grade, they should be held back until they meet standard or at least go to summer school, but that is absolutely not happening. There are teachers around the district that are frustrated because they have students that don't even show up to school, but they can't fail them for any reason. So say, if a student shows up and tries to turn or forgets to turn something in, the teacher is then forced to give them a 50% grade on it instead of a zero, which is then watering down the A's that the students that are actually trying to get done. So teachers need to be supported in their grading. Parents need to be involved and, yeah.
Read the candidate Q&A with Rosales' competitor: Margo Bellamy.